Multi-part construction toy sets are very popular among young children, and parents as well, as they allow for a wide expression of imagination in assembling structures and devices from the individual components of the construction toy set. Typically, a construction set will include specific, illustrated instructions for the assembly of one or more specific devices. However, in many if not all cases, the users will strike out on their own, to assemble the individual components in new ways to build structures and devices that they envision.
One of the popular multi-part construction toy sets is manufactured by K'NEX Industries, Inc., Hatfield, Pa., and sold under the well known “K'NEX” trademark. The K'NEX construction toy is comprised principally of individual rods and connector elements designed to accommodate a unique lateral snap-in assembly in a manner to enable large and complex structures of considerable strength and rigidity to be assembled. The K'NEX construction toy set is covered by and described in the Glickman U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,061,219, 5,137,486, 5,199,919 and 5,350,331, among others. The disclosures of those patents are incorporated herein by reference.
An older but nevertheless still popular form of multi-part construction toy is of the studded block style, such as marketed under the “Lego”, “Mega Bloks”, and “Duplo” trademarks. These styles of construction toys utilize hollow blocks or “bricks” of rectangular configuration provided with a plurality of cylindrical studs projecting upward from flat upper surfaces thereof. The geometry of the blocks is such that the projecting studs of one block may be inserted into, and frictionally retained by, the hollow bottom area of another block in various combinations of positions, enabling a wide variety of structures to be built on a block-on-block assembly basis. Although the construction options available using block type components is somewhat more limited than with the rod and connector system described above, the block type construction sets remain popular with children and parents because the individual components tend to be somewhat larger and are easily handled and assembled by small children.